Cambridge Earth Sciences
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
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News and events from the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University.
🌍 Thinking about postgrad study in Earth & Environmental Sciences? Explore our taught & research Master's, or dive into a PhD. Find out more on our website:
www.esc.cam.ac.uk/postgraduate
#PhD
#PhDOpportunities
9 days ago
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Thomas Bauska
15 days ago
Playing spot the pebbles in the very last meter of ice drilled at Skytrain Ice Rise (~650 meters deep) with
@wacswain.bsky.social
and PhD student Yu Huang
@bas.ac.uk
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
@gatescambridge.bsky.social
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Lizzy Steell
21 days ago
🦴New fossil alert🦴 Introducing Aeviperditus gracilis, a possible bowerbird from the Miocene of New Zealand. My first fossil description! Artwork by the amazing Sasha Votyakova (Te Papa CC-BY-SA) (🧵1/11)
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Lizzy Steell
21 days ago
Check out our
@aunz.theconversation.com
article covering the St Bathans
#bowerbird
story!
theconversation.com/a-tiny-fossi...
@nicrawlencenz.bsky.social
@atennyson.bsky.social
@plubbe.bsky.social
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A tiny fossil suggests bowerbirds once lived in ancient New Zealand – new research
New Zealand’s ancient bowerbird was smaller and more slender than the species living in Australia and New Guinea today.
https://theconversation.com/a-tiny-fossil-suggests-bowerbirds-once-lived-in-ancient-new-zealand-new-research-267104
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Communications Earth & Environment
24 days ago
🧭Some giant magnetofossils may have acted as magnetoreceptors in motile animals, with a magnetic structure optimised to respond to magnetic field intensity variations.
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
👉Read more here:
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
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Magnetic vector tomography reveals giant magnetofossils are optimised for magnetointensity reception - Communications Earth & Environment
Some giant magnetofossils may have acted as magnetoreceptors in motile animals, according to three-dimensional vector tomography of a spearhead giant magnetofossil which identifies a magnetic structur...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02721-3?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=commsenv
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🌋 Sixty million years ago, a mantle plume beneath the North Atlantic triggered extensive volcanic activity—leaving behind iconic sites like the Giant’s Causeway & Fingal’s Cave🌋 New research explains why: thinner patches in Earth’s lithosphere funnelled the plume’s hot rocks far and wide.
3 months ago
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Kev Wong
3 months ago
Magmas move rapidly beneath the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), suggesting that an efficient rift magmatic system has already developed despite its relative tectonic immaturity! New research in Nature Geoscience:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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Nature Geoscience
3 months ago
⚒️ Article: Rapid crustal transit of magmas beneath the Main Ethiopian Rift
@geokevw.bsky.social
@murphyqm.bsky.social
@envleeds.bsky.social
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
@oxuniearthsci.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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University of Cambridge
3 months ago
Spiky-toothed 'penis worms', rock-scraping molluscs and filter-feeding crustaceans are among a new treasure trove of fossils found at the Grand Canyon. Explore the find from PhD student Giovanni Mussini 👇
www.cam.ac.uk/stories/gran...
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Grand Canyon was a ‘Goldilocks zone’ for the evolution of early animals
A treasure trove of exceptionally preserved early animals from more than half a billion years ago has been discovered in the Grand Canyon, one of the natural world’s most iconic sites.
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/grand-canyon-fossils
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UK COMET
6 months ago
We are delighted to celebrate two outstanding
@uk-comet.bsky.social
Scientists, Professor Marie Edmonds
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
and Professor
@davidmpyle.bsky.social
(
@ox.ac.uk
), elected Fellows of the Royal Society this year:
royalsociety.org/news/2025/05..
. 🎉 Read more:
wp.me/p5NBzI-1Zg
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Celebrating Excellence in Earth Sciences: Two COMET Scientists Elected Fellows of the Royal Society - UK Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics
We are delighted to celebrate COMET Scientists Professor Marie Edmonds (University of Cambridge) and Professor David Pyle (University of Oxford), who are amongst the outstanding and distinguished grou...
https://wp.me/p5NBzI-1Zg
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This time last week our part III students were in southern Spain, exploring Almería’s exceptionally varied geology 🌞⛰️ There's something for everyone on this trip: metamorphic rocks, overlying reefs, evaporites and turbidite basins, volcanic centres, and major fault zones!!
#Fieldwork
#Geoscience
7 months ago
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Centre for Landscape Regeneration
8 months ago
🌿 We're thrilled to be hosted by Fitzwilliam College today for a conference on research on the Fenland landscape. A fantastic opportunity to discuss the potential future for the landscape. @NERCscience
#LandscapeRegeneration
#Fenland
#Sustainability
#EnvironmentalResearch
#CambridgeUniversity
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Thomas Bauska
8 months ago
May Adam Sedgwick look upon us with favour.
#camfest
@cambridgefestival.bsky.social
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
@bas.ac.uk
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🎉 The latest issue of GeoCam is here! Meet our new Head of Department, uncover fascinating research, hear alumni stories, explore student mapping trips, and enjoy vibrant updates from
@sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social
📖 Read in full here:
www.esc.cam.ac.uk/alumni/alumn...
8 months ago
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🎶 What if you could play a microscope image of a
#mineral
like a record? Scientists from Cambridge & Anglia Ruskin have turned
#volcanic
mineral images into magical music! Hear their melodies at the
#CambridgeFestival
tomorrow, 4:30 PM. 🌍✨Register here:
www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/hidde...
8 months ago
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Studying Earth Sciences opens doors to careers that make a real difference in society🌎Former PhD student Matthew Brady now works for a carbon credit ratings agency, helping organisations make better climate decisions. Read more about Matthew's journey! ➡️
unicamcareers.edublogs.org/2025/03/17/c...
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Climate Scientist to Ratings Scientist: Matthew on his move to industry from a PhD in climate science – unicamcareers blog
https://unicamcareers.edublogs.org/2025/03/17/climate-scientist-to-ratings-scientist-matthew-on-his-move-to-industry-from-a-phd-in-climate-science/
8 months ago
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Last week, our first-year students went on their very first field trip to Ketton Quarry! 🪨🐚 🥳 Here they are, proudly showcasing some of their fossil discoveries, including star-shaped segments of crinoid stems, ammonites, brachiopods, and bivalves.
#Geology
#Fieldwork
#Fossils
#Palaeontology
8 months ago
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Max Van Wyk de Vries
8 months ago
New perspective article discussing how we define natural hazards in today's world. Key message: a barrier between 'human' and 'natural' events is often unhelpful, and we must consider the interaction between multiple hazards in all cases.
www.nature.com/articles/s44304-025-00071-w
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All hazards are multihazards, few of them are natural - npj Natural Hazards
npj Natural Hazards - All hazards are multihazards, few of them are natural
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44304-025-00071-w
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🌏 How 'natural' are natural hazards?🌋Cambridge geoscientists and geographers will tackle this compelling question in a live webinar tomorrow, 13th March. Join the conversation and discover how Cambridge research is making real-world impact! Link to register below 👇
#NaturalHazards
#Webinar
8 months ago
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When warm seawater seeps under
#Antarctic
ice shelves it melts them from below and destabilizes glaciers🌊 🌍Researchers used model simulations to reveal the importance of seasonal changes in triggering warm water intrusions; urging for these dynamics to be included in ice loss forecasts.
8 months ago
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Cambridge geoscientists are mapping the global distribution of critical metals in unusual igneous rocks to locate secure
#RareEarthElement
deposits. Sally Gibson and Sergei Lebedev are studying carbonatite rocks, which host rare earths, and their relationship to the thickness of Earth's lithosphere.
8 months ago
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Duygu Sevilgen has built a coral lab in the basement of an old Zoology building. Here, 10 experimental tanks host multicoloured miniature forests, with each tank representing a different marine environment.
#ClimateChange
#Biodiversity
9 months ago
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There are many ways to study rocks up-close! 🔬💎 These thin section drawings and images are of feldspar-pyroxene xenoliths, brought up from beneath Fagradalsfjall, Iceland, by erupted basalts🌋
#ThinSectionTuesday
#Petrology
9 months ago
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Did you know that mountain ranges like the Himalayas play a role in drawing carbon out of the atmosphere through erosion? Our researchers headed out to Nepal during the monsoon season to study water-rock interactions, bringing about 60 kgs of rainwater samples back to Cambridge for analysis!
9 months ago
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Wetlands may be a secret weapon in tackling climate change, due to their ability to lock away carbon in waterlogged vegetation 🦆🌊🌿 But drainage can instead turn wetlands into carbon emitters. PhD student Thomas Marquand is researching the carbon capture potential of Cambridgeshire’s Fenland soils.
9 months ago
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Did you know that mountain ranges like the Himalayas play a role in drawing carbon out of the atmosphere through erosion? Our researchers headed out to Nepal during the monsoon season to study water-rock interactions, bringing about 60 kgs of rainwater samples back to Cambridge for analysis!
9 months ago
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Helen Williams
9 months ago
Hard to believe it was only a week ago that I returned from the incredible place that is Antartica via the Sir David Attenborough, a truly amazing ship! All part of the SiCLING BAS &
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
NERC project led by PI Kate Hendry (BAS). Excited for future sample analyses!
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Sedgwick Museum
9 months ago
What’s the story behind this fascinating rock? It is laminated layers of shales and jaspers found in North West Queensland, Australia, formed 500 million years ago. These colourful layers do not align because they have been faulted (fractured and displaced).
#TectonicTuesday
#Faulting
#Geology
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Beneath Iceland lies a plume of hot mantle rock. It's thought that this plume pulses, in turn influencing volcanism and ocean currents🌋 But scientists haven't been sure about the geological processes at play. Cambridge PhD students joined a North Atlantic research cruise to unravel the mystery!
9 months ago
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In 2019, scientists from Cambridge and
@bas.ac.uk
drilled a 651-metre-long ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to study its behaviour during the Last Interglacial, when polar regions were 3°C warmer and sea levels higher🧊 After years of analysis, they have published their findings in Nature!
10 months ago
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Eric Wolff
10 months ago
WACSWAIN has just published the main outcome of our project. Article entitled "The Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial", out today in Nature
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
@royalsociety.org
@ercresearch.bsky.social
Explanation follows
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The Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial - Nature
Sea salt data from an ice core record show that Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial, the last period of enhanced and sustained global warmth about 125,000 years ago.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08394-w#article-info
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This footage shows the 2021 eruption of Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma, which spewed lava onto 12 square kilometres of populated land🌋 Our Prof. Marie Edmonds and colleagues flew drones into these volcanic plumes to investigate emissions of volcanic pollutants. Video credit: Emma Nicholson.
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10 months ago
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Could kelp forests help sequester carbon and combat climate change? 🌊📷PhD student Zhenna Azimrayat Andrews joined a team led by Stanford University to explore the viability of kelp as a marine CO2 (mCDR) technology. Read more:
blog.esc.cam.ac.uk/unlocking-th...
Photo credit: Jenny Adler
10 months ago
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Sedgwick Museum
10 months ago
Do you know what mineral made this megalodon tooth so big and strong? It is called Apatite. As well as strengthening our bones and teeth, apatite is a key mineral in the fossilisation process. The apatite coating can be seen on the tooth with a section in the centre stripped away.
#MineralMonday
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Professor Sanne Cottaar uses
#earthquake
waves to gaze deep into Earth’s interior, “It sometimes feels like the Earth is throwing clues at me. It’s my job to put it all together and solve the mystery." Read on to find out what it means to be a Deep Earth Explorer ➡️
www.cam.ac.uk/stories/sann...
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Into the underworld
Sanne Cottaar is Professor of Global Seismology in Earth Sciences. She wants to understand Earth’s inner structure: how it shaped the surface and allowed life to form. At the core of these questions i...
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/sanne-cottaar
10 months ago
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Eric Wolff
10 months ago
Very exciting news from the Beyond-EPICA Oldest Ice project. Ice at least 1.2 million years in stratigraphic order collected from Antarctica.
www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/h...
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Historic drilling project finds ice over 1.2 million years old - British Antarctic Survey
The Beyond EPICA-Oldest Ice project has successfully drilled a 2800-metre-long ice core consisting of ice which is over 1.2 million years old.
https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/historic-drilling-campaign-reaches-ice-more-than-1-2-million-years-old/
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Sedgwick Museum
11 months ago
How can you move a mountain? 🗻 The Sedgwick Museum is in the final stages of relocating our collection to the Collections Research Centre. Approximately 150 tonnes of rock have been sent to their new home. It's like moving a mountain, one piece at a time.
#MoveAMountainMonday
#CollectionsMove
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The 7 Jan deadline for
#PhD
applications is fast approaching! Make sure to check our guidance on applying and reach out to prospective supervisors. We’re here to help you with your application!
www.esc.cam.ac.uk/news/new-ner...
11 months ago
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Watch these snowflake-like dendritic clinopyroxenes twinkle as this thin section is rotated in cross-polarised light!❄️☃️ This is a rare volcanic rock called komatiite, from Gorgona. Credit: Charlie Gordon.
#ThinSectionTuesday
#Petrology
#Mineralogy
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11 months ago
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Think you’d like to study a
#PhD
in
#EarthScience
? 🌎🌱 Current PhD students Zhenna, Devesh and Alice offer their top tips for those interested in applying!
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11 months ago
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Liz Hide
11 months ago
Happy to say my paper on Charles Darwin's chalcopyrite specimen is now available
journals.le.ac.uk/index.php/ma...
I explore how this specimen connects to global stories of extraction & exploitation, and how it enables us to share & discuss these challenging issues with museum visitors
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Deep Time Ecology group
11 months ago
Next up is
@philvixseboxse.bsky.social
former DTE member talking about his PhD work
@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
with Alex Liu and colleagues
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Think you’d like to study a
#PhD
in
#EarthScience
? 🌎🌱 Current PhD students Zhenna, Devesh and Alice offer their top tips for those interested in applying!
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11 months ago
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Join us for a
#PhD
in
#palaeontology🦕If
you’re interested in evolutionary
#paleobiology
and palaeoecology and its links to environmental change then our researchers would love to chat with you about designing a project.
11 months ago
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Cambridge Earth Sciences
Looking for
#PhD
opportunities in
#IgneousPetrology
? 🌋Feel free to reach out to our researchers to discuss possible project ideas on themes such as crustal magmatic systems, diffusion chronometry, global volatile cycles, Icelandic volcanism and more!
12 months ago
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Edward W. Marshall
12 months ago
My big paper on the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption is finally out! If you want to understand the recent eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula better, look no further:
doi.org/10.1029/2024...
Let’s dive in to what we found: 🧵 1/8
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The Petrology and Geochemistry of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall Eruption, Iceland: An Eruption Sourced From Multiple, Compositionally Diverse, Near‐Moho Sills
We use high frequency sampling to observe rapid changes in lava composition during the 183 day 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption The eruption was sourced from 12 to 15 km depth, corresponding to the l...
https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001310
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Looking for
#PhD
opportunities in
#IgneousPetrology
? 🌋Feel free to reach out to our researchers to discuss possible project ideas on themes such as crustal magmatic systems, diffusion chronometry, global volatile cycles, Icelandic volcanism and more!
12 months ago
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Nice to see a busy careers event last night, organised by the Sedgwick Club! Lots of helpful information on available opportunities and career guidance. And lovely to see some of our alumni too!
#Geology
#EarthScience
#Careers
#womeninstem
12 months ago
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We are excited to announce our Department will be hosting a series of new
#PhD
studentships, starting from Oct 2025! 🥳 The studentships will be in the field of environmental science, working on topics at the heart of some of the most pressing societal challenges
#EarthScience
12 months ago
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